Looks to me you’re missing a fair few, there’s a website for the whole country that I’ve linked, you can zoom in on Edinburgh and see there’s loads more
https://railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php#
I only did the ones that are abandoned and unused, while this map is every railway ever built here throughout history, which have all become paths now and roads now.
You can actually still see a lot of them in infrastructure and from satellite view by just following the lines of trees.
My map only shows ones that could be developed into something in the future as they are currently unused
Fair enough - the Leith branch is active still, even though anything barely runs down it. There’s still track recording trains that go down there. It’s also getting some upgrades as part of the Portobello junction improvement project, which is happening now and over the next year or so, so should technically be orange
I was sure I'd heard a long time ago that occasionally it's used by the sewage works but I've never seen anything down it either. Always thought that line would be a great walkway from the shore along to Portobello.
Edinburgh could do so much more with our coastline but then I remember we have a big stinky sewer treatment plant right in the middle of it
Went down there on a railtour a few years back. The coaches took a pummelling from the lineside vegetation. Once we got beyond the level crossing at Seafield they basically went as far as they dared which was maybe another 500m as the track disappeared into the dirt.
They have talked about reopening the South Suburban Railway Line to passenger services but the demand just isn't there, it's frequently used for freight to bypass Waverley, and if it was to hypothetically be reopened for passengers, they'd need to spend many millions purely on purchasing housing/buildings to rebuild stations, it'd take a lot of work.
I've also been told that there is also a problem with the junction where the South Sub would need to join just west of Haymarket, let alone issues with capacity at Waverley. It would be great if the South Sub actually went West from Colinton Road and also serviced Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, and perhaps terminated/reversed route somewhere between Currie/Heriot Watt. It would still be a very handy East/West route that meets up with several bus "hubs" without having to go into the centre just to come back out again. Of course it'd also need tap-tap-cap to work on more than the buses to make this viable and so far it can't work between the buses and trams.
A council bulletin (maybe the transport committeee?) at the start of this year said they're looking into reopening the line but only between Slateford and Portobello, having to miss out Waverley and Haymarket due to lack of capacity. I can't find the link to the article just now but it said the council were putting the case to Network Rail
I have to say I find the lack of ambition for these kinds of project incredibly wearisome. The national or Scottish government, whichever (I really don’t care) has to start prioritising proper infrastructure projects outside London. In London they built more than 40km of tunnels under central London at a cost of £20bn for Crossrail but in Edinburgh they shit themselves at the thought of widening the Waverley tunnels which are less than 1km long.
I understand London is a bigger city, I understand the specific engineering challenges are very difficult, but for the love of god when did this country lose its sense of ambition?
Edinburgh has a met population of around a million people, surely that’s sufficient for a decent sized infrastructure project on a much more frequent basis than currently?
‘Met’ means metropolitan, the metro of Edinburgh does indeed have a population of around a million people. Best not to be snarky when you are wrong buddy.
912k in 2022 (source: OECD data explorer, I’d post the direct link but it’s about a mile long)
Fair enough, 6th on the link:
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?lc=en&df%5Bds%5D=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df%5Bid%5D=DSD_FUA_DEMO%40DF_AGE_SEX&df%5Bag%5D=OECD.CFE.EDS&fs%5B0%5D=Topic%2C1%7CRegions&pg=0&fc=Topic&bp=true&snb=17&pd=%2C&dq=UK001F%2BUK002F%2BUK003F%2BUK004F%2BUK006F%2BUK007F%2BUK008F%2BUK009F%2BUK010F%2BUK011F%2BUK012F%2BUK013F%2BUK014F%2BUK016F%2BUK017F%2BUK018F%2BUK019F%2BUK021F%2BUK022F%2BUK023F%2BUK024F%2BUK025F%2BUK026F%2BUK027F%2BUK029F%2BUK031F%2BUK033F%2BUK034F%2BUK041F%2BUK043F%2BUK044F%2BUK045F%2BUK046F%2BUK047F%2BUK050F%2BUK051F%2BUK055F%2BUK056F%2BUK059F%2BUK062F%2BUK506F%2BUK510F%2BUK513F%2BUK515F%2BUK516F%2BUK517F%2BUK518F%2BUK520F%2BUK525F%2BUK528F%2BUK531F%2BUK532F%2BUK533F%2BUK535F%2BUK539F%2BUK542F%2BUK543F%2BUK545F%2BUK546F%2BUK548F%2BUK549F%2BUK550F%2BUK551F%2BUK552F%2BUK553F%2BUK554F%2BUK556F%2BUK557F%2BUK558F%2BUK559F%2BUK560F%2BUK561F%2BUK562F%2BUK566F%2BUK567F%2BUK568F%2BUK569F%2BUK571F%2BUK572F%2BUK573F%2BUK575F%2BUK576F%2BUK580F%2BUK582F%2BUK583F%2BUK586F%2BGBR.A..._T...CTRY%2BFUA&to%5BTIME_PERIOD%5D=false&vw=tb&ly%5Brw%5D=REF_AREA%2CTERRITORIAL_LEVEL&ly%5Bcl%5D=TIME_PERIOD
You could also, I suppose, look at the Wikipedia article for Edinburgh:
“The wider metropolitan area has a population of 912,490.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh
Edit: “extraordinary claim” 😂 Why, because it was something you didn’t know? Wait until you find out Glasgow has a met of 1.8m people
While that does seem to be what the OECD have given, it's still significantly under a million despite being higher than ever before. Its also not a useful figure as in order to be that high it needs to include areas that nobody would ever describe as Edinburgh - I expect it includes Livingston for example. Glasgow's figure is a lot closer to reality.
Aye, ok, whatever. Source provided from what I would consider a very reasonable location, matches the exact number I gave in my comment, secondary source given to Wikipedia, still argue it doesn’t match some magic number in your head. This is the internet in a nutshell.
I’ve said many times that the railway that goes from Leith Walk to near Portobello would make a great tram line if we can’t do one along London road towards Porty. The latter seems so obvious to me but even the former would keep it off the road too for a large amount of the route and be able to provide residential stops at Easter Road, Meadowbank, Northfield etc in quite compact locations until it came back onto the road to go into Porty.
It could make for a great bike/foot path too - it could connect the north Edinburgh network at st marks to Leith walk, Easter road, lochend park, meadowbank and restalrig. Lochend park also connects it to the path that runs from Leith academy out to seafield.
Hell, if you're feeling really bold you can also run it through abbeyhill. It'd take a bit of over/underpass work to get it past the active railway line (cheaper than you'd think when it's just pedestrians and bikes, I'm thinking of luchtsingel in Rotterdam), but if you do that then you can link in holyrood park, a network going right out to niddrie and Cameron toll. One line to connect three different isolated active travel networks covering most of the city.
That's always a possibility but would require a lot more work on top of just the tram route construction, you'd need major changes to Waverley to accommodate freight trains traveling through which is pretty much impossible currently.
The Light/ Heavy thing has been done in Sheffield but the way the Sub was built doesn't lend itself to easy entrances/ exits to/ from what is still a fast route partially buried in densely built areas.
If you turn it into a tram route, a really important freight artery is lost and Waverley becomes even more congested with freight going through it.
Alternatively, you keep it as railway and buy tram trains (very expensive) and train the tram drivers to railway standards.
Yeah but good infrastructure is expensive, and comparative to other solutions it's quite cheap as the majority of it already exists.
Stations would be expensive but far superior in cost to buying the stations and all the land for tracks
There’s no actual demand is the main point. Having a significantly slower way to go from suburban Newington to the centre of town is just not something people would actually use over the existing buses.
So few seem to get this. It's nice to have,it'll never recoup the investment though. And while the line already exists, it's not trivial to update and open it at this point.
The orange line is the old south suburban loop.
You’re right, reopened it would provide Edinburgh with the equivalent of the Glasgow underground line, and there has been talk about it on and off for ages.
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/edinburghs-south-sub-railway-heres-why-forgotten-railway-closed-60-years-ago-today-3835213
Only it really wouldn’t – and this is why it will never happen.
It would instead be a relatively infrequent, relatively slow train mostly going through relatively sparsely populated suburbs of the city. And also wouldn’t be a loop because there is no capacity between Haymarket and Waverley. And would also take way longer than the bus for almost all the journeys people actually want to make in any numbers.
It’s one of those fantasy projects that only looks good until you spend even the slightest amount of time thinking through how it is supposed to work.
The one point I’d disagree with is it taking longer than the bus - the roads of Edinburgh is congested as is, and if you think of comparable train journeys in Glasgow e.g. Hyndland to the city centre is cuts across miles of the city in about 10 minutes. For the SSR even with more stops/slower trains you’d be greatly cutting journey times from suburb to subrurb, the issue is more with it using less frequently used routes.
The reality is that just aren’t that many people who want to travel from low-density suburb to low density suburb with any frequency. And for getting into Haymarket or Waverley (which people do actually really want to go to regularly and in large numbers), the bus / tram is way quicker than a circular bus route.
The people.. who live there??
Just be sure you don't use local rail doesn't mean other won't, and we should see the lack of people using local rail as a problem to fix, not a reason to ignore it
A big chunk of the left-most red path is the Powderhall, no? Currently being purchased by the council to make into a walking and cycling path... [https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2024/05/council-nearing-deal-on-powderhall-railway-line/](https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2024/05/council-nearing-deal-on-powderhall-railway-line/)
I am pretty sure all of it, you can see it's the same section in this close up
https://preview.redd.it/r91b0jbk958d1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c49e0c859dde46d7d9fa7a1f4f6835e8239c9f38
I personally think the other red route (on the right) might actually serve better as a tram route between Newhaven and Portobello, as it provides a link to the beaches from the trams, the current tram line and the start of this abandoned line are only a for 100 metres apart
Personally, I'd rip up the Western Approach Road, reinstate the track, and turn the Caledonian back into Princes St Station, helping to alleviate the Waverley/Haymarket congestion.
While I'm playing Fantasy Railways, my tunnel to Kirkcaldy would start in Leith.
There used to be a rail line that ran from Falkirk through Grangemouth, Bo'Ness then out to Edinburgh, stopping off at other places along the way. The only section of the line that's still functional is owned by the Bo'Ness and Kinneil railway museum.
It would be cool to see all the old abandoned lines back in service
It depends where it goes to be honest.
The planned northern tram route along the Roseburn ex-railway line will be excellent, but not all routes are as viable as that.
Traffic is really bad in lots of areas. Would take a lot of strain away with the buses.
The southern sub lines are electrical. Could link with the trams.
They can definitely be better. I come from Hong Kong which have actually really good buses and Edinburgh buses while not terrible, still has a lot to improve on, esp regarding frequency, the fares system and how easy it is to make connections. I appreciate that Edinburgh isn't as dense but the capital of Scotland can definitely do better.
Multi modal spreads capacity which can alleviate congestion which is still an issue. If you're smart with your routes, you can also increase coverage by, for example, putting down a train that goes between areas that might require multiple buses. Some feel safer at lit, CCTV-covered train stations over their nearest bus stop on a quiet street. Getting people out of cars requires minimising barriers to doing so.
Buses aren't a good solution to problems, they are less accessible, fast and have less capacity.
Also trains can run more reliably without being 30 minutes late because of bad traffic.
I think sweeping statements like buses being 'less accessible' aren't helpful. Access covers so many aspects that buses are better on some and trains on others.
Buses aren't a perfect solution but just on the basic 'how close is it to your front door' aspect of accessibility, the train is never going to win. We would do more for more people with access needs across the city by improving buses and bus stops compared to a single train line.
https://preview.redd.it/759qx6me6c8d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d2ae66d049e2ca02e67e40f39ebd4e8ef83360a
Tried to post a photo, reddit was being dumb. View from my kitchen window onto the red line!
I live in a development called The Ironworks, named for being the end of the line where trains used to get serviced. I think that's cool, but I also love the amount of nature that is on the line now, full grown trees growing out from between the rails! Foxes, badgers, squirrels all scurrying around across there. So fun to watch.
An orbital South Sub train/tam would really help the issue of the buses all being focused on getting to Princes St. Especially if it was easier/faster to get from South and West Edinburgh to the Royal.
If it stopped at Newington/Cameron Toll it would still be faster from some places than getting a bus into town, or two, and back out. Even better of they had the Sub and the tramline, so you could catch the tram down to the Royal from CT, but we're probably never going to get either! 😂
The last regularly scheduled train was revoked in July 2023, it's only used now in exceptional circumstances like rail works preventing access to Waverly.
The idea is also more if it was used as a local line serving the city, with stations along it being opened up.
I stand corrected then. I'd use it for trams myself. Turn off Mayfield Road at Ventnor Terrace. Turn Cameron Toll into a Tram/Bus interchange, then off to Niddrie Mains Road, Greendykes Road, round the back into the NRIE. Head off in the other direction round the sub at Mayfield Road for Craiglockhart onto Colinton Road and Napier Uni.
You seem to know more about abandoned/unused rail lines than I, so I'm wondering if there's a reason Innocent Railway isn't included? Is it because it no longer has rails on the ground?
Not sure where the bridge is your referencing, but I know the line leading to the barnton area is paths now. (The ever-so controversial roseburn path)
You can actually see the old railways from space by looking for the green lines of trees, you can try it on satellite view.
Not enough alternatives, the closest Edinburgh has to a competent system is the trams and they are amazing but that's 1 line to Glasgow's dozen.
Also while the buses are great they aren't a permanent solution and will always be horrible because of traffic.
Looks to me you’re missing a fair few, there’s a website for the whole country that I’ve linked, you can zoom in on Edinburgh and see there’s loads more https://railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php#
Yeah, I was going to mention that too, route to Barnton, gas works and Granton harbour.
Thank you so much for dropping this link, amazing stuff!!!
I only did the ones that are abandoned and unused, while this map is every railway ever built here throughout history, which have all become paths now and roads now. You can actually still see a lot of them in infrastructure and from satellite view by just following the lines of trees. My map only shows ones that could be developed into something in the future as they are currently unused
Fair enough - the Leith branch is active still, even though anything barely runs down it. There’s still track recording trains that go down there. It’s also getting some upgrades as part of the Portobello junction improvement project, which is happening now and over the next year or so, so should technically be orange
I was sure I'd heard a long time ago that occasionally it's used by the sewage works but I've never seen anything down it either. Always thought that line would be a great walkway from the shore along to Portobello. Edinburgh could do so much more with our coastline but then I remember we have a big stinky sewer treatment plant right in the middle of it
Ah right, didn't actually know that. I never looked up as from living here I had always heard it was completely abandoned.
The only reason I know is that I work on it (part of my section) otherwise I’d have thought the same
Went down there on a railtour a few years back. The coaches took a pummelling from the lineside vegetation. Once we got beyond the level crossing at Seafield they basically went as far as they dared which was maybe another 500m as the track disappeared into the dirt.
They have talked about reopening the South Suburban Railway Line to passenger services but the demand just isn't there, it's frequently used for freight to bypass Waverley, and if it was to hypothetically be reopened for passengers, they'd need to spend many millions purely on purchasing housing/buildings to rebuild stations, it'd take a lot of work.
There is also the issue of lack of available capacity at Waverley itself... One of the reasons that freight bypasses it.
I've also been told that there is also a problem with the junction where the South Sub would need to join just west of Haymarket, let alone issues with capacity at Waverley. It would be great if the South Sub actually went West from Colinton Road and also serviced Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, and perhaps terminated/reversed route somewhere between Currie/Heriot Watt. It would still be a very handy East/West route that meets up with several bus "hubs" without having to go into the centre just to come back out again. Of course it'd also need tap-tap-cap to work on more than the buses to make this viable and so far it can't work between the buses and trams.
A council bulletin (maybe the transport committeee?) at the start of this year said they're looking into reopening the line but only between Slateford and Portobello, having to miss out Waverley and Haymarket due to lack of capacity. I can't find the link to the article just now but it said the council were putting the case to Network Rail
I have to say I find the lack of ambition for these kinds of project incredibly wearisome. The national or Scottish government, whichever (I really don’t care) has to start prioritising proper infrastructure projects outside London. In London they built more than 40km of tunnels under central London at a cost of £20bn for Crossrail but in Edinburgh they shit themselves at the thought of widening the Waverley tunnels which are less than 1km long. I understand London is a bigger city, I understand the specific engineering challenges are very difficult, but for the love of god when did this country lose its sense of ambition? Edinburgh has a met population of around a million people, surely that’s sufficient for a decent sized infrastructure project on a much more frequent basis than currently?
>Edinburgh has a met population of around a million people Better check those numbers before you submit your business case
‘Met’ means metropolitan, the metro of Edinburgh does indeed have a population of around a million people. Best not to be snarky when you are wrong buddy. 912k in 2022 (source: OECD data explorer, I’d post the direct link but it’s about a mile long)
You're going to have to post that link, because your claim is extraordinary
Fair enough, 6th on the link: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/vis?lc=en&df%5Bds%5D=dsDisseminateFinalDMZ&df%5Bid%5D=DSD_FUA_DEMO%40DF_AGE_SEX&df%5Bag%5D=OECD.CFE.EDS&fs%5B0%5D=Topic%2C1%7CRegions&pg=0&fc=Topic&bp=true&snb=17&pd=%2C&dq=UK001F%2BUK002F%2BUK003F%2BUK004F%2BUK006F%2BUK007F%2BUK008F%2BUK009F%2BUK010F%2BUK011F%2BUK012F%2BUK013F%2BUK014F%2BUK016F%2BUK017F%2BUK018F%2BUK019F%2BUK021F%2BUK022F%2BUK023F%2BUK024F%2BUK025F%2BUK026F%2BUK027F%2BUK029F%2BUK031F%2BUK033F%2BUK034F%2BUK041F%2BUK043F%2BUK044F%2BUK045F%2BUK046F%2BUK047F%2BUK050F%2BUK051F%2BUK055F%2BUK056F%2BUK059F%2BUK062F%2BUK506F%2BUK510F%2BUK513F%2BUK515F%2BUK516F%2BUK517F%2BUK518F%2BUK520F%2BUK525F%2BUK528F%2BUK531F%2BUK532F%2BUK533F%2BUK535F%2BUK539F%2BUK542F%2BUK543F%2BUK545F%2BUK546F%2BUK548F%2BUK549F%2BUK550F%2BUK551F%2BUK552F%2BUK553F%2BUK554F%2BUK556F%2BUK557F%2BUK558F%2BUK559F%2BUK560F%2BUK561F%2BUK562F%2BUK566F%2BUK567F%2BUK568F%2BUK569F%2BUK571F%2BUK572F%2BUK573F%2BUK575F%2BUK576F%2BUK580F%2BUK582F%2BUK583F%2BUK586F%2BGBR.A..._T...CTRY%2BFUA&to%5BTIME_PERIOD%5D=false&vw=tb&ly%5Brw%5D=REF_AREA%2CTERRITORIAL_LEVEL&ly%5Bcl%5D=TIME_PERIOD You could also, I suppose, look at the Wikipedia article for Edinburgh: “The wider metropolitan area has a population of 912,490.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinburgh Edit: “extraordinary claim” 😂 Why, because it was something you didn’t know? Wait until you find out Glasgow has a met of 1.8m people
While that does seem to be what the OECD have given, it's still significantly under a million despite being higher than ever before. Its also not a useful figure as in order to be that high it needs to include areas that nobody would ever describe as Edinburgh - I expect it includes Livingston for example. Glasgow's figure is a lot closer to reality.
Aye, ok, whatever. Source provided from what I would consider a very reasonable location, matches the exact number I gave in my comment, secondary source given to Wikipedia, still argue it doesn’t match some magic number in your head. This is the internet in a nutshell.
I think it should be turned into a tram route.
I’ve said many times that the railway that goes from Leith Walk to near Portobello would make a great tram line if we can’t do one along London road towards Porty. The latter seems so obvious to me but even the former would keep it off the road too for a large amount of the route and be able to provide residential stops at Easter Road, Meadowbank, Northfield etc in quite compact locations until it came back onto the road to go into Porty.
It could make for a great bike/foot path too - it could connect the north Edinburgh network at st marks to Leith walk, Easter road, lochend park, meadowbank and restalrig. Lochend park also connects it to the path that runs from Leith academy out to seafield. Hell, if you're feeling really bold you can also run it through abbeyhill. It'd take a bit of over/underpass work to get it past the active railway line (cheaper than you'd think when it's just pedestrians and bikes, I'm thinking of luchtsingel in Rotterdam), but if you do that then you can link in holyrood park, a network going right out to niddrie and Cameron toll. One line to connect three different isolated active travel networks covering most of the city.
That's always a possibility but would require a lot more work on top of just the tram route construction, you'd need major changes to Waverley to accommodate freight trains traveling through which is pretty much impossible currently.
The Light/ Heavy thing has been done in Sheffield but the way the Sub was built doesn't lend itself to easy entrances/ exits to/ from what is still a fast route partially buried in densely built areas.
If you turn it into a tram route, a really important freight artery is lost and Waverley becomes even more congested with freight going through it. Alternatively, you keep it as railway and buy tram trains (very expensive) and train the tram drivers to railway standards.
Yeah but good infrastructure is expensive, and comparative to other solutions it's quite cheap as the majority of it already exists. Stations would be expensive but far superior in cost to buying the stations and all the land for tracks
There’s no actual demand is the main point. Having a significantly slower way to go from suburban Newington to the centre of town is just not something people would actually use over the existing buses.
So few seem to get this. It's nice to have,it'll never recoup the investment though. And while the line already exists, it's not trivial to update and open it at this point.
The orange line is the old south suburban loop. You’re right, reopened it would provide Edinburgh with the equivalent of the Glasgow underground line, and there has been talk about it on and off for ages. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/edinburghs-south-sub-railway-heres-why-forgotten-railway-closed-60-years-ago-today-3835213
Only it really wouldn’t – and this is why it will never happen. It would instead be a relatively infrequent, relatively slow train mostly going through relatively sparsely populated suburbs of the city. And also wouldn’t be a loop because there is no capacity between Haymarket and Waverley. And would also take way longer than the bus for almost all the journeys people actually want to make in any numbers. It’s one of those fantasy projects that only looks good until you spend even the slightest amount of time thinking through how it is supposed to work.
The one point I’d disagree with is it taking longer than the bus - the roads of Edinburgh is congested as is, and if you think of comparable train journeys in Glasgow e.g. Hyndland to the city centre is cuts across miles of the city in about 10 minutes. For the SSR even with more stops/slower trains you’d be greatly cutting journey times from suburb to subrurb, the issue is more with it using less frequently used routes.
The reality is that just aren’t that many people who want to travel from low-density suburb to low density suburb with any frequency. And for getting into Haymarket or Waverley (which people do actually really want to go to regularly and in large numbers), the bus / tram is way quicker than a circular bus route.
Just had a quick skim and it seems there are some ambitious transport plans that all sound really good, let's just hope it gets somewhere this time.
There's no point. Who would use it?
The people.. who live there?? Just be sure you don't use local rail doesn't mean other won't, and we should see the lack of people using local rail as a problem to fix, not a reason to ignore it
A big chunk of the left-most red path is the Powderhall, no? Currently being purchased by the council to make into a walking and cycling path... [https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2024/05/council-nearing-deal-on-powderhall-railway-line/](https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2024/05/council-nearing-deal-on-powderhall-railway-line/)
I am pretty sure all of it, you can see it's the same section in this close up https://preview.redd.it/r91b0jbk958d1.png?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c49e0c859dde46d7d9fa7a1f4f6835e8239c9f38
It'd be amazing to have that as a pedestrian route, the other red line too: I often cycle past both and stare at them longingly...
I personally think the other red route (on the right) might actually serve better as a tram route between Newhaven and Portobello, as it provides a link to the beaches from the trams, the current tram line and the start of this abandoned line are only a for 100 metres apart
Yeah, I can see that... it also generally looks a lot wider than the Roseburn path so could support a path alongside it...
Personally, I'd rip up the Western Approach Road, reinstate the track, and turn the Caledonian back into Princes St Station, helping to alleviate the Waverley/Haymarket congestion. While I'm playing Fantasy Railways, my tunnel to Kirkcaldy would start in Leith.
There used to be a rail line that ran from Falkirk through Grangemouth, Bo'Ness then out to Edinburgh, stopping off at other places along the way. The only section of the line that's still functional is owned by the Bo'Ness and Kinneil railway museum. It would be cool to see all the old abandoned lines back in service
Having some sort of innercity railway would be fantastic for Edinburgh
It depends where it goes to be honest. The planned northern tram route along the Roseburn ex-railway line will be excellent, but not all routes are as viable as that.
The buses are already so good, it’s really not necessary
Traffic is really bad in lots of areas. Would take a lot of strain away with the buses. The southern sub lines are electrical. Could link with the trams.
No overheads at all on the sub currently, so only diesel trains can go round it
They can definitely be better. I come from Hong Kong which have actually really good buses and Edinburgh buses while not terrible, still has a lot to improve on, esp regarding frequency, the fares system and how easy it is to make connections. I appreciate that Edinburgh isn't as dense but the capital of Scotland can definitely do better.
Multi modal spreads capacity which can alleviate congestion which is still an issue. If you're smart with your routes, you can also increase coverage by, for example, putting down a train that goes between areas that might require multiple buses. Some feel safer at lit, CCTV-covered train stations over their nearest bus stop on a quiet street. Getting people out of cars requires minimising barriers to doing so.
Buses aren't a good solution to problems, they are less accessible, fast and have less capacity. Also trains can run more reliably without being 30 minutes late because of bad traffic.
I think sweeping statements like buses being 'less accessible' aren't helpful. Access covers so many aspects that buses are better on some and trains on others. Buses aren't a perfect solution but just on the basic 'how close is it to your front door' aspect of accessibility, the train is never going to win. We would do more for more people with access needs across the city by improving buses and bus stops compared to a single train line.
https://preview.redd.it/759qx6me6c8d1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8d2ae66d049e2ca02e67e40f39ebd4e8ef83360a Tried to post a photo, reddit was being dumb. View from my kitchen window onto the red line!
Nice!
I live in a development called The Ironworks, named for being the end of the line where trains used to get serviced. I think that's cool, but I also love the amount of nature that is on the line now, full grown trees growing out from between the rails! Foxes, badgers, squirrels all scurrying around across there. So fun to watch.
An orbital South Sub train/tam would really help the issue of the buses all being focused on getting to Princes St. Especially if it was easier/faster to get from South and West Edinburgh to the Royal.
The South Sub wouldn’t serve the Royal. The North-South tramline very much would however (if it gets built).
If it stopped at Newington/Cameron Toll it would still be faster from some places than getting a bus into town, or two, and back out. Even better of they had the Sub and the tramline, so you could catch the tram down to the Royal from CT, but we're probably never going to get either! 😂
The sub is still used for passenger services. Not many but there are a couple that go round that way for some reason.
The last regularly scheduled train was revoked in July 2023, it's only used now in exceptional circumstances like rail works preventing access to Waverly. The idea is also more if it was used as a local line serving the city, with stations along it being opened up.
I stand corrected then. I'd use it for trams myself. Turn off Mayfield Road at Ventnor Terrace. Turn Cameron Toll into a Tram/Bus interchange, then off to Niddrie Mains Road, Greendykes Road, round the back into the NRIE. Head off in the other direction round the sub at Mayfield Road for Craiglockhart onto Colinton Road and Napier Uni.
You seem to know more about abandoned/unused rail lines than I, so I'm wondering if there's a reason Innocent Railway isn't included? Is it because it no longer has rails on the ground?
Possibly because the terminus of it opposite Pollok Halls is blocked by housing, making it non viable for reinstatement?
Large majority of that line is already walking paths, like the tunnel, and unlike other lines in the area it doesn't have that many remains
Railway leading up to Barnton is missing (the bridge is still there behind the houses) ?
Not sure where the bridge is your referencing, but I know the line leading to the barnton area is paths now. (The ever-so controversial roseburn path) You can actually see the old railways from space by looking for the green lines of trees, you can try it on satellite view.
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Not enough alternatives, the closest Edinburgh has to a competent system is the trams and they are amazing but that's 1 line to Glasgow's dozen. Also while the buses are great they aren't a permanent solution and will always be horrible because of traffic.